Brockton native an up-and-coming rapper

Brockton native Alyssa Marie has over 2 million views online with a YouTube channel that has more than 33,000 subscribers. She has nearly 5,000 Twitter followers and her Facebook page has over 10,000 likes.

Up-and-coming local rapper Alyssa Marie took the stage Thursday night in front of the biggest crowd she’s performed in front of since she decided to focus fulltime on her musical career.

The crowd of about 200 people at the upstairs of the Middle East nightclub in Cambridge was a good warm-up for what may be her big break today.

Last week, the Avon resident got a call asking her to perform on stage at the Vans Warped Tour in Hartford, Conn. The touring music festival will stop at the Xfinity Center in Hartford, a facility which has a capacity of 30,000.

“I’m so stoked,” said Marie, 25, whose real name is Alyssa Nessralla. “It was a last-minute thing. They hit us up like a week ago. Hopefully if we do well there they’ll have us on more dates. We’ll see.”

Marie raps in front of a live band that includes a bassist, guitarist and drummer. She released her second album titled “No Parades on Easy Street” in May and held her album release party Thursday night at the Middle East.

“I don’t know what our stage is like but I know this is going to be bigger than anything I’ve ever played for sure,” she said. “I don’t know what to expect.”

Marie was born in Brockton and grew up on the South Shore. She has a large, tight-knit Lebanese family. Her parents own Nessralla’s Greenhouse and Garden Center of Avon. She has many family members in the area, including many in Brockton.

Marie grew up listening to rap music and began writing poetry at a very young age. She was published in a poetry anthology at age 12.

“I started writing rap lyrics when I was 12 and free-styling with my friends around 14,” said Marie.

She was 15 when, at a friend’s house, she recorded music for the first time.

“It started with my parents playing (JAM’N) 94.5 in the car when I was like 5 or 6 years old,” Marie said.

She graduated from Archbishop Williams High School in Braintree in 2008. After two semesters of college she decided it wasn’t for her and began toying around on the Internet with her music.

“Eventually I started posting my music on YouTube and seeing that I was getting better feedback and getting a little bit of a buzz and I kind of stopped working on my school work and dropped out to focus on hip-hop.”

She describes her rap style as alternative, conscious rap. She jokes about having to rap because she cannot sing.

Page 2 of 2 - Since her bold career move, Marie has garnered more than 2 million views online with a YouTube channel that has more than 33,000 subscribers. She has nearly 5,000 Twitter followers and her Facebook page has more than 10,000 likes.

While her presence online grew, she still needed to break the news to her family in 2009 that she was dropping out of college to pursue a rap career. It was something she wasn’t sure they would all understand or want to hear.

“My grandmother is 78 years old. She hates rap. Hates it. And I was already getting a buzz online and enjoying it but I needed to do something that’s going to make my family proud,” she said. “I played it for her and she loved it. Not because I was her granddaughter, but she actually listened to the lyrics, was quoting the lyrics, and loved it.”

Now she has the full backing of her family, who were at her show Thursday night.

While she says fame and fortune are not her ultimate goals, she knows she has an uphill battle to get where she wants to be, especially as a woman lyricist.

“Sometimes people don’t like female rappers and no matter how good you are they’re not going to listen to you. They’re going to hate on you. They’re going to find a reason not to like you,” she said.

While Marie can’t please everyone, she said she is focusing on the people who do like her and her music.

“I’m definitely still starting off. I’m working, I think there’s a momentum that’s starting to build, which is cool,” she said. “I’m in a place where I’m a little bit established but I’m still definitely progressing but I’m not anywhere near where I want to be.”